Half the Man I Used to Be(but no regrets)
by DaeofthePen
Summary: He didn't plan this, but there seems to be no way back. So Eijirou is going to make the best of it. ...He still misses his husband though. Time Travel.


Summary:

He didn't plan this, but there seems to be no way back. So Eijirou is going to make the best of it. ...He still misses his husband though.

* * *

Chapter 1

Shouts and sounds of brawling happening echo behind him and Eijirou faces a couple of villains without fear, there's plenty of backup should he need it.

No less than five hero teams fight against the newest batch of upstart villains claiming society to be trash.

You'd think they'd learn from their predecessors.

Heroes versus Villains. It sounds like it should be some epic showdown like the stories he heard as a kid.

All it feels like is any run-of-the-mill, scruffy gang quarrel over territory that you'd find in grimy, dark alleyways. Nothing really fit for television.

His earpiece announces to all of them that more reinforcements are on their way and Eijirou lets that fact settling in the back of his head.

He's got a kid on his hip, a civilian caught in the crossfire, and with only one arm disposable. He should be at a disadvantage.

Should.

Eijirou skids to the side and uses his free hand to keep the kid's face pressed to his chest. He doesn't need to look to know the closest villain just dropped to the ground. The smell of burnt meat is almost comforting.

"I've got ya, "Eijirou mutters to the crown of her head. His priority right now isn't to jump into battle. He had to get her out, even if it meant not taking part in most of the action. And-

He blocks a spiked arm.

And it wasn't like he didn't have decent backup.

He kicks the guy in the gut. Hard enough to knock him flat on his back.

Eijirou doesn't stick around when the villain is assaulted by fiery blasts and heated curses. He doesn't even try covering the girl's ears. There's more important things than vehement words. Like her life.

Katsuki moves fervently, a hell of an escort in the chaos.

 _The sooner you get out, the sooner you get back_ , he'd told Eijirou once. Looking past snarling lips and flimsy insults, Eijirou had agreed.

He breaks free of the chaos and heads to the Aid Station, leaving Katsuki to his own devices at the edge of the skirmish.

Away from the commotion of the battle, Eijirou can hear his breath and footsteps. And the small sniffles of the kid.

"It's okay. I've got ya," Eijirou whispers comfortingly. He strokes her hair absentmindedly, his eyes scan the shadowed streets and looming rooftops. He doesn't stop running.

The main battle has moved further east and away from the Aid Station. It takes him 4 minutes to get there.

There's about as much activity happening at the Aid Station as in the battleground. Many civilians being sent out in ambulances and many more coming in.

Eijirou hands the kid over and he's off again, ready to get back into the turbulence of battle.

Except he doesn't make it back.

He cries out at the burning pain at his side. It eats its way through reinforced skin, pain burrowing deeper and Eijirou briefly wonders if he's being eaten alive.

He lays on the ground, writhing. Through blurry tears, Eijirou can make out a bleary, dark figure hunched over him. The street light gleams off crazed, green eyes.

Briefly, between one breath and the next, he's grateful he didn't make it back. Katsuki doesn't need this kind of distraction.

Her hand comes down and covers his face. He _screams_.

* * *

The pain is back, similar but different. It welcomes Eijirou as he regains consciousness.

He's screaming again.

He can barely feel the pinprick of pain in the bend of his elbow, but when it drags him away from the pain, he's grateful.

* * *

His next time waking up is slower. And less painful.

Eijirou stares for a long time, blankly without really seeing. It takes probably more time than it should have to realize it's a clean, white ceiling he's staring at. The smell of antiseptic hits him next. He grimaces.

Hospital.

Katsuki was going to be _pissed_.

Eijirou looks around carefully, but there's no angry blond in sight. Not that'd he'd need eyes to know once Katsuki saw him awake. Eijirou would've been halfway drowning in not-scolding's and not-fretting's by the time he could even make out what was being said.

It's a little weird to not have him there, griping about the nurses or the food, but Eijirou would rather have him take care of himself. Eijirou wasn't going anywhere.

Or at least, that's what he gathered from the amount of bandages on his body. His left limbs remain free.

His head is pounding and his eyelids grow heavy.

He isn't awake to hear the door open.

* * *

He next wakes up to murmurs.

Eijirou groans in protest as his body awakens. There's some shuffling as chairs drag along the floor.

The sound does horrible things to his headache.

He squints blearily towards the sound.

There, to his right, is a hospital bed like his own. His parents- all four of them and so much younger than he remembers- sit beside it, half turned towards him.

Half hidden behind them lays a bandaged, 11-year-old Eijirou.

Confusion races through him, Eijirou moves to sit up- to get a better look maybe-

Protests fill the air as his parents- still so, so young- sprint to his side. Hands gently press him back down.

He stares blankly at their worried faces hovering over him. From this close there was no denying it. They were very much his parents.

Younger.

Young enough to reasonably be the parents of an 11-year-old Eijirou even.

"What-" Eijirou rasps, dozens of questions running through his mind and not finding one that could articulate all of them.

There's a hand under his head, tilting it up, and a cup at his lips. He takes small, slow sips.

Once both retreat, he tries again.

"What happened?" Eijirou asks, his eyes flickering over to the _other Eijirou_.

His parents glance at each other. It's almost laughable, how young and unsure they look.

"A villain, " Mom begins and yeah, Eijirou can remember a villain, "She chanced by you when you were walking from school. Thought to use you as a hostage."

Eijirou goes to protest, because he graduated from school _years_ ago, when the memories surface.

Him, walking from school.

The cold, green eyes of the villain.

The pain.

Nothing seemingly out of place in the memory except that the memory told him he was _eleven and in elementary school_.

"-heroes and police got there too late and-" her voice pauses and pins him with a watery gaze, "...by the time they got there, she'd already activated her quirk and you had been _split in half_."

Eijirou looks down at himself, half expecting to be missing limbs, but no. Even through the layers of bandages, he could feel his limbs.

"The doctors say they couldn't just 'put you back together' and so- this is the result, "she ends. Her hand sweeps towards the other bed.

He and the- the _other_ Eijirou stare at each other. Neither are really sure how to react, even though Eijirou is sure that _the other_ has had more time to process things than him.

They exchange awkward waves with their non-bandaged arms.

It's _surreal_.

Eijirou turns back to his parents. He eyes Mom, young as she is. Her tense shoulders and hands that can't seem to keep still. They wring at the edge of her expensive coat.

So young, _all_ of them really, to have something so traumatic happen to their only child.

Her eyes are worried, but guarded. It takes him a moment to figure out why.

It makes sense. Details aside, her child was _split in half_. That child then became two, through surgery and who knows what list of quirks. Surgery that had to do with the brain.

Who knows if both _or even either of them_ would end up the same as the child that went in to that surgery room.

Or what kind of side effects could occur.

Eijirou gives her his warmest smile- the kind reserved for found trauma survivors found on the field, soft and encouraging- and extends his arm out. He hopes it comes across okay with part of his face bandaged like this.

Her hug is gentle, hands fluttering over the bandages.

"I know this must be shocking, "she murmurs, face buried in his hair.

Eijirou presses his face against her shoulder. He tries to wrap his mind around the solidness of her figure.

The hope of this being a weird lucid dream withers away.

* * *

A/N: Time travel, time travel, _time travel_. I love time travel you guys.


End file.
